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How we use LinkedIn

We use LinkedIn to ensure that our users are real professionals who contribute and share reliable content.

When you sign in with LinkedIn, you are granting elearningindustry.com access to your LinkedIn account, which is used to authenticate you without you having to enter a different user name and password. We also use this access to retrieve the following information:

Watch Your Back(end): Limited Backend Access To Course Authors

Creating a multi-author platform to host a number of courses on your eLearning website is a great way of turning your vocation into a profession. However, there are several security issues with providing core backend access to all authors. This is where the need to limit backend access arises.

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Why Course Authors Should Have Limited Backend Access And How You Can Achieve That

Several learning organizations and academic centers are taking the digital route with Learning Management Systems.

LearnDash - A Household Name In the LMS Space

In the short time that LearnDash has existed, it has grown in popularity to become a recognized name in eLearning. Considering that it is a WordPress extension, it is easy to set up a LearnDash website and integrate needed features as extensions.

Pulling Students In With Good Content

When running your eLearning website, the most important factor that’ll keep learners interested and attract new students is good course content! Sure your website design plays a key role and it’ll help you get students to look at your courses; but the only thing that’ll keep them engaged is your courses.

When you’re the only one running the show, it’s easy to maintain high standards. But what happens when you get multiple course authors on board? How do you make sure the quality of your website and content is maintained? How do you make sure they don’t mess with other parts of your website or your course content?

Well, there is some manual effort involved, but we’ll take a look at some tools that can help us simplify this task.

Holding The Reins On A Multi-Instructor Website

Offering several courses can help you attract a wider student audience. But to be able to offer diverse content you need the help of Subject Matter Experts, and that means multiple course authors.

While there are more pros to running a multi-instructor website as opposed to cons, a major problem here is to maintain course quality. Each course author might have a specific style, they may be good teachers but not good at Instructional Design; worst yet, they may not be good at technology and might not understand how to upload content on your website.

You need to find the means to tackle these problems.

One Plugin, Multiple Solutions

Owing to the popularity of LearnDash, you know that it offers several extensions to address instructor problems. And since your particular problem is quite common when it comes to multi-instructor websites or course marketplaces, there’s a plugin that meets your need.

Meet The Front End Course Creation Plugin

The security of your website trumps the quality of your website. Keeping with that, the primary function of this plugin is to restrict backend access for your fellow instructors. Considering that back end is where the sensitive information is, blocking access to it is addressed by the plugin.

All you need to do is create a “Course Author” profile for contributing instructors. With this profile, an instructor can post courses through forms on the frontend and does not have backend access.

Another advantage of keeping course authors on the front end is that they are shielded from the complexities of the back end, and do not need to know WordPress or LearnDash to upload their courses.

2. Review Course Content

Now, maintaining the quality of your courses involves some manual effort. You have to review content before it goes up on your site. With Front End Course Creator, you can set an option to prevent courses from directly being published on your site. Courses can be saved as drafts to be reviewed by you, and then be published.

Surely instructors who you confide in, could definitely be upgraded from “Course Authors” to regular instructors.

Side Note

Now, you could argue that a capability management plugin could be used to address your issues. But Front End Course Creation is more than a capability management plugin. Along with restricting instructor capabilities, it is a management plugin as well.

It allows you, the LearnDash admin, to set and track commissions for paid courses created by course authors. Also, the plugin is BuddyPress-compatible to let you create instructor profiles on the frontend.

A Recap

When building a multi-author LearnDash website, you need to make sure that course content quality and the security of your website are not meddled with. Considering the importance of these two factors, the plugin for the job is Front End Course Creation.

It offers the benefit of creating and managing a multi-author website without worrying about content security.

Next steps? You’re encouraged to check out the plugin in detail and see it working live on the demo site!